Archives for June 2012

Some people are just born with beautiful, defined, high cheekbones, while others need a little help bringing them out. For those of us who crave cheekbones like Angelina Jolie, Kiera Knightly, and Scarlett Johansson, this tutorial is for you! I’m going to show you how to do some basic face contouring, so you can make the most of your cheeks. This will give you really pretty, dewy looking cheeks, and add shape while creating the look of high cheekbones. It’s something you can do everyday, and you don’t have to use the specific products I use. You just need a basic highlighter, whatever blush you want, and shading powder or bronzer.

Here’s some “after shots” showing my contoured cheeks from all angles. Try it out and let me know what you think!

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I have a confession. I’ve been pretty lazy with my skincare, only using makeup wipes or doing the worst thing EVER and falling asleep in my makeup. SO BAD. It’s really important to have a beauty routine, and stick to it. With the right routine and products, your skin will also get in routine, less likely to have random breakouts.

I’d also like to age gracefully (what girl wouldn’t?), so I’m conscious of anti-aging preventative measures. I remember asking my dance teacher years ago what she wished she had done different in high school. Her response (which could have been literally anything in the world)? “Started wearing eye cream!” I guess that’s where I got it from, so a good eye cream is definitely on my list of must haves in a beauty routine, along with a cleanser, moisturizer and exfoliator.

So needless to say, it was perfect when, I received an opportunity to test out éclos Skin Care this past week. There’s also an opportunity for you to win another identical kit they sent me, so keep on reading (YAY for giveaways)!

Reading about éclos Skin Care, I was intrigued. It’s different from other anti-aging skincare lines because it features Apple Stem Cells extracted from a rare Swiss apple, This has shown tremendous ability to stimulate skin stem cells, which encourages aging skin to behave like younger skin! They say the plant extracts, viatamins, and anti-oxidants in these products (combined with the Apple Stem Cells), helps minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles too. So overall, this sounded like a great product for anti-aging and reversing the clock!

Checkout the kit they sent me.

It included:

Facial Cleanser Skin Prep

Cellular Activator Face Serum

Moisture Theraphy Regenerative Cream

Restorative Eye Cream

Instant Radiance Facial Scrub

Skin Remewal Clay Mask

Terry Cloth Head Band

I have to say, this is truly a complete skincare line! I used the cleanser, serum, moisturizer, and eye cream on a daily basis, the clay mask twice a week, and the facial scrub (which I LOVED) every other day. Here’s some of the things I noticed.

The products smell GREAT! I felt like I was at a spa, giving myself a facial everytime and truly indulging.

The face serum dries really fast, so you don’t have to wait to put on the moisturizer.

With the eye cream, a little goes a long way. *STYLE TRIAL TIP* Don’t waste excess eye cream. Use it on other line prone-areas (forehead, smile lines, creases in neck).

The facial scrub is now one of my favs. It felt like a gentle sugar scrub, but definitely exfoliates well. It also warms up when you first put it on. This specfic product has won beauty awards, and I now know why!

I also really liked the clay mask. I have combo skin, and it didn’t dry me out. You only have to leave it on for 5-10 minutes, and you literally feel your skin tighten. A cool sensation!

I can’t believe I’m putting this on the web, but for this kind of review you deserve a before and after shot so you could truly see the results. Me in all my no-makeup glory. 🙂

BEFORE

AFTER

When comparing the before and after pics, you can see that my skin looks more even and less oily in the after shots. The most noticeable thing to me is that the dark circles under my eyes have greatly improved. Keep in mind this is after only using éclos Skin Care for 1 week. I’m going to continue using it because my skin feels softer, purified, and it didn’t make me breakout. The only thing I would do different is to add SPF in the moisturizer. I like to wear SPF 15 on my face everyday by just having it built into my face lotion, but I guess it’s okay because I’ve been using Bare Minerals face powder which has SPF in it too. So at least I’m covered that way.

Now for the fun part…YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A MATCHING KIT (a $19.99 value)!

To enter this giveaway there is one requirement and five additional entry options:

LEAVE SEPARATE COMMENTS FOR EACH OF THESE. Comment entries will be numbered in the order they appear, and I’ll use Random.org to randomly select and verify the winner. If any of the optional entries apply to you already, just say so in the comments (i.e. “I am already a subscriber” and post the email address you subscribed with in a comment).

4. Subscribe to StyleTrials by entering your email adress. Let me know what email address you subscribed with in the comment entry.

5. Share this blog post on Twitter saying “I just entered the #eclosbeauty skincare giveaway via @MyStyleTrials.” Include the link to your tweet in the comment entry.

6. Share this blog post on Facebook saying “I just entered the #eclosbeauty skincare giveaway via StyleTrials.com.” Include the link to your Facebook share in the comment entry.

Good luck! Entries will be accepted through Friday, July 6th, 2012. You must have a U.S. shipping address to enter.

If you don’t win and still want to get your hands on some éclos Skin Care, it’s available at Ulta, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and GNC. These products also boast that they do not have parabens, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, synthetic dyes, or petro-chemicals (potentially harmful synthetic chemicals derived from petroleum). Good to know!

Spring and Summer are the PERFECT times to get crafty in the garden, and my newly found “green thumb” has been itching to make an appearance. Unfortunately, we’re still in our condo so we don’t technically have a yard. To get my fix, my hubby and I planted some potted herbs on our porch which actually just started sprouting! Some pretty fine looking sprouts if I do say so myself! 🙂

Well inspiration couldn’t have come at a better time. One of my best friends, Katie, was having a birthday party and recently started gardening. So I decided a garden “goodie pot” would be the ideal gift! That’s my take on a goodie bag, but instead of a bag you put everything in a pot planter! That way she can use the pot to plant something in. Inside the pot, I wanted to put some really cute gardening tools and fun things that would also be functional, yet girlie and adorable (of course). Target’s gardening section is really great, and that’s where I picked everything up. Plus, I love going to Target because it’s an excuse to checkout their $1 section!

Here’s what I picked up to put in the garden goodie pot, but you can really pick whatever you want for this type of gift.

Basic Plant Pot (I hand-painted the peacock feather!)

The cutest floral print gardening tool kit EVER

Matching floral print gardening apron

Plaid gardening gloves

And a gnome of course. Which was later dropped on the ground, glued back together, then named Henry.

You can see that when it came to putting everything together, the pot itself just wasn’t cutting it for me. It was too plain. Besides, I like to add a personal DIY touch to my gifts to make them more special, so I decided to paint the pot with one of Katie’s favorite motifs…a peacock feather! The pot I painted on was plastic, but this could work on plastic, metal or clay pots. I used acrylic paint. If you’re artistic, then I’d suggest definitely adding the touch of personalizing the pot. Of course it doesn’t have to be a peacock feather, it can be anything you want!

If you don’t like free-hand painting, then stencils would work. And at the very least, if you don’t have an artistic bone in your body you can always buy a fancier pot for the base of your gift. Just make sure it’s big enough to fit everything in like this. I also stuffed some pretty tissue paper in the bottom of the pot (because it was so big) so that everything stuck out of it a little more.

You can see how much joy a thoughtful DIY gift like this can bring. Katie loved it!

Here’s a few other inspiration pics of fun painted plant pots! You can personalize it for the person you’re giving it to like I did for Katie, or simply make it pretty and colorful.

Photo Credit: http://www.modishblog.com

Photo Credit: http://mysweetshack.blogspot.com

Photo Credit: http://staceyembracingchange.blogspot.com

Photo Credits: SchwidleShop on Etsy

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m feeling inspired to paint my own terracotta pots on my porch. Maybe that will be my weekend project!